Early limits on the verbal updating of an object’s location

Recent research has shown that by 30 months of age, children can successfully update their representation of an absent object’s location on the basis of new verbal information, whereas 23-month-olds often return to the object’s prior location. The current results show that this updating failure persisted even when (a) toddlers received visual and verbal information about the prior location but no motor information, or (b) toddlers received only visual information about the prior location, or (c) toddlers received only verbal information about the prior location, and (d) whether or not the prior location was mentioned at the time they received the new verbal information. The results are explained in terms of working memory limitations on children’s ability to use language when the new information conflicts with existing information.

► 23-Month-olds do not verbally update their representation of an object’s location.
► The modality of the initial representation does not matter.
► We propose an explanation based on working memory limitations.